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CONTANGO WATCH: Natural gas’ contango widened a bit this week, but remains typical for this time of year. At $0.02, the front-month natural gas roll is relatively inconsequential, at least by natural gas standards. More pertinent for traders are weather forecasts, the key driver of natural gas over the winter months. Currently, the NOAA is calling for mild temperatures for the bulk of December, which has pressured prices in recent sessions.

Has oil moved into backwardation yet? What does corn's roll yield look like? How do you know when it's time to buy—or sell?

Each week, we investigate the futures curves of the most important commodities in the U.S., helping investors better understand the market and seize buy-and-sell opportunities as soon as they arise. For an easy-to-understand explanation of contango, backwardation and roll yields, please click here to go to our Hard Assets University.

To see current contango curve and front-month roll costs for each of our selected commodities, please select a sector or commodity below (or read the whole report):

CONTANGO WATCH: Natural gas’ contango widened a bit this week, but remains typical for this time of year. At $0.02, the front-month natural gas roll is relatively inconsequential, at least by natural gas standards. More pertinent for traders are weather forecasts, the key driver of natural gas over the winter months. Currently, the NOAA is calling for mild temperatures for the bulk of December, which has pressured prices in recent sessions. ROLL COSTS: It costs investors 9.79 percent annualized to roll front-month natural gas contracts, up from a cost of 7.99 percent.

CONTANGO WATCH: Gold saw a very slight widening of its contango, but roll costs are close to the five-year average historical roll for this date. ROLL COSTS: It costs investors 0.91 percent annualized to roll front-month gold contracts, up from a cost of 0.7 percent.

CONTANGO WATCH: Aluminum is in backwardation at the very front end of the curve and backwardation thereafter. ROLL COSTS: It costs investors 7.15 percent annualized to roll second-month aluminum contracts, up from a cost of 6.37 percent.

CONTANGO WATCH: Corn flipped into contango at the front end of the curve. ROLL COSTS: It cost investors 2.27 percent annualized from rolling front-month corn contracts, up from a net of 1.37 percent. BOTTOM LINE: Contango to Backwardation

CONTANGO WATCH: Contango at the front end of the lean hogs forward curve widened, but remained near typical levels. ROLL COSTS: It costs investors 41.77 percent annualized to roll front-month lean hogs contracts, up from a cost of 38.51 percent.

CONTANGO WATCH: Cocoa is in backwardation at the very front end of the curve and mild contango thereafter. ROLL COSTS: It costs investors 0.25 percent annualized to roll second-month cocoa contracts, down from a cost of 0.71 percent.

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